Protein Dance

Introduction

Artistic Director Luca Silvestrini uses a blend of choreography, text, humour and music, connecting theatrical experiences with real life stories, resulting in witty, entertaining and provocative shows on- and off-stage. Protein was award ‘Best Independent Company’ at the National Dance Awards 2011 and is one of the most distinctive voices in British Dance theatre. As well as creating work for the stage, Silvestrini has also made site-sensitive outdoor works including and large scale, intergenerational participatory projects across the world.
Driven by Luca’s concern for the human condition and his drive to communicate contemporary dance to a wider public, Protein has carved out new territory in which to develop, present and experience dance theatre.

Production Highlights

Windows in Progress (2014)
Commissioned by the Royal Opera House for Deloitte Ignite Festival. In and out of shop windows, Protein animated Covent Garden with an emerging interactive street performance that saw dancers attempt to dress and choreograph nearby shop fronts while blurring the lines between everyday life and mythology.

Border Tales (2014)
With an engaging blend of dance, dialogue and live music, Protein returns with a new slice of social commentary. Treated with trademark physical and verbal wit, Border Tales looks at multi-cultural living in the UK seen through the eyes of the characters on stage. Silvestrini turns his sharply satirical gaze to stereotypical thinking, tolerance and where lines are drawn between ‘them’ and ‘us’.

LOL (lots of love) (2011-12)
In an age of electronic communication LOL (lots of love) puts Protein’s six dancers on a quest for romance. Talking and dancing at speed, they tackle the baffling etiquette of electronic discourse, make hilarious straight-to-the audience confessions, and dance the physical equivalent of poking and tweeting. With video animation by Rachel Davies and original music by Andy Pink, these ingredients conjure a razor-sharp commentary on our Facebook society, and an affecting rendering of human need.

(In) visible Dancing (2010-present)
Each project begins as a small event and increases in size every time it appears, growing in number of performers and choreographic complexity. Constant rehearsal between shows keeps it fresh and ensures it gradually emerges over several days from what looks like random incidental behaviour on the streets to a fully-fledged dance performance with live music that engages with the location and behaviour of passers-by. The show has now been seen by over 40,000 people across the country.

Dear Body (2008-9)
Is a witty satire on our growing fixation with body image and body maintenance. Drawing inspiration from Silvestrini’s B for Body which won the Audience Vote in The Place Prize 2006, Dear Body continues that most private relationship of all: the one we have with ourselves.
With six dancers and a cast of non-professional performers drawn from the local community, Dear Body has distinctive video animation from award-winning filmmaker Rachel Davies.

Review extracts

“Bouncy, extremely clever and constantly entertaining” – The Times“Luca Silvestrini is the sharpest of comic choreographers” – The Guardian“the company approach their theme with an apocalyptic energy that’s by turns funny and alarming and intoxicating … I have rarely laughed so much” – The Independent on Sunday